Here you are you have spent a good few years working hard and spending time
, ensuring good customer satisfaction and high quality delivery. Your business has expanded and now you are running between a number of stores trying to manage while the staff and maintaining the standards.
You have developed some of your own products which are as good as anything suppliers provide and you have secured a very good deal on an international agency as a direct importer.
Now you wonder how you are going to expand while it has got to the stage where you don't have time anymore. Well the answer could be to franchise you operation. Think of the big franchise names, McDonalds, 7 -Eleven, Pizza Hut and Wendy's all have started as small franchise operations and gone on to sell billions. And what they did was to look at their successful small operations and insist on the formula being replicated. So if one goes and visits a "MickeyD" in New York, Baton Rouge or Tokyo you will find the same thing. The menu is the same, the Uniforms are the same, and by and large the appearance is the same.
And so it should be with the business you want to franchise. You will need to spend some time ensuring that your systems are robust and documented and then will need to layout exactly what it is you are going to franchise.
One of the things you will need is a set of franchise manuals and Franchise Documents. Fortunately for you a lot of these have been well laid out in neat packages for you. These documents and packages are a huge assistance in laying out the franchise agreements and the systems that you will be selling.
Firstly there is brand awareness. Selling a franchise is a 2 way street. The purchaser is paying for goodwill and the right to use your name. Thus the Logo should be copy-write as should be the shop sign writing, and staff uniform. But he must agree in an enforceable agreement to uphold that standard and maintain the brand identity.
But he must agree in an enforceable agreement to uphold that standard and maintain the brand identity. You need to tie the customer down as to his purchases, just exactly what he may purchase from any other supplier than yourself for example.
Staff training and systems and procedures are further examples of items that need to be agreed and signed off.
The purchase price of the franchise should also contain clauses in regard to corporate advertising. A monthly fee should be levied to cover this and so on.
These are only some of the many items to be considered when starting a franchise business. If you are serious then visit the website and view what all is provided. Drawn up by lawyers who have many years experience in the franchising field a complete set of documents and manuals will ensure that when you actually start selling your franchises your franchisees will get a clear and legally binding set of agreements without any loopholes.